The Marine Biotechnology group of the Earth System Sciences Organisation, National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), has been working on sustainable development of fish stocks through their ‘Open Sea Cage Culture’ technique.
The institute has been in the forefront of pioneering designs used in the development of open sea cages suitable for Indian seas. A team from the institute deployed and tested the technique for over two years in places like the North Bay in the Andaman islands, Kothachatram in Andhra Pradesh and Olaikuda in Tamil Nadu.
The cage system has survived cyclonic weather conditions, showcasing the ability and the resilience of the technology to withstand natural calamities. The farmed fish from the project were said to have shown tremendous growth, with a more-than-50 percent survival rate being recorded by the team of researchers.
“There is tremendous pressure being exerted on fish stocks across the world. So if new techniques, methods and technologies can be developed to maintain and increase fish stocks, while not depleting our seas, it could lead to a more sustained livelihood for people living in these communities in the long run,” said G Dharani, a scientist who specialises in the study of plankton biology and ecology.
In order to reduce the pressure on local fish stocks and to develop an ecologically sustainable stock of fish, the institute has designed and developed three modules of artificial reef structures deployed 750 units at a depth of 15m in three locations (Puri, Chandrabhaga & Ballinolcha), just off the Odisha coast. Underwater monitoring, one year after the deployment, recorded enormous marine growth over the AR structures and large congregations of grouper around these structures.
The institute has also designed, developed and deployed more than 25 oceanic Fish Aggregation Devices (FAD) in the Lakshadweep group of islands and 10 FAD’s in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for the capture of lesser-fished oceanic tuna in India.
Apart from the aquaculture programme, the group is also concentrating on biotechnology programmes like the isolation, screening and culture of marine microalgae for the production of biodiesel. The culture of deep sea bacteria in high pressure fermentors for the extraction of novel biologically active secondary metabolites for biomedical applications, said another researcher at the institute.